Norwalk Public Schools News & Information
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2 hour Early Dismissal on Wednesday, August 29 for 11 Schools
With very hot weather expected on Wednesday, August 29, there will be a 2 hour early dismissal at 11 schools without air conditioning. The 2 hour early dismissal applies only to the following schools: Nathan Hale, Ponus, Roton, West Rocks, Cranbury, Naramake, Kendall, Rowayton, Silvermine, Tracey and Wolfpit. After school programs/activities at the schools dismissing early are also cancelled.
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Welcome Back NPS Students & Families!
We hope that everyone had a wonderful summer filled with learning and fun! NPS teachers, administrators and staff are excited to welcome students back for the 2018-19 school year. Across the district, there are many wonderful opportunities planned for NPS students and their families. For more information on upcoming open school nights and individual school sponsored events, please visit your school's website.
Norwalk Public Schools wants to remind everyone of our procedures for school closings,
delays, early dismissals and after-school programming cancellations due to weather
related issues. On days when weather may impact the school day, we ask that
parents and guardians check the below sources frequently for information. Although
rare, changing conditions may require that a delay be changed to a cancellation, or
that an early dismissal is called after the school day begins. NPS will make every effort
to avoid changes, but there are times when it cannot be avoided.
NPS sends out notifications to parents via email, automated voice message and SMS
text. If you are not receiving these messages, please make sure your student record has
been updated with your most recent information.
School delays, closures, early dismissals and after-school cancellations are
also communicated in the following places:
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Bus Schedules For The 2018-19 School Year
Norwalk school bus routes have been finalized and are now available on the Transportation pages of the NPS website. Click on the
"Buses"
icon on the NPS homepage to go to the
Transportation page
, which has a
link
to the routes as well as other information about bus transportation.
Transportation is provided based on your officially registered address at school, from your home area to school, and school to your home area based on state guidelines for eligibility. Please note that all routes are subject to change. As a reminder, per NPS Board policies, students should be at bus stops 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time. Bus eligible students in secondary school will receive bus passes within the first few weeks of school. Contact your school directly with any questions.
Please know that buses can run behind schedule in the early days of any new school year. Young students need to get used to getting on and off the bus, older students are greeting new friends, and bus drivers are adjusting to revised routes and unexpected traffic at the beginning of the year. We ask that families please be patient while everyone gets settled.
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School Start Time Reminder For 2018-19
Beginning with the 2018-19 school year, six elementary schools will increase instructional time by 30 minutes. The additional time will be added to the beginning of the school day. As a result, Fox Run, Jefferson and Marvin will begin at 8:15am and end at 2:50pm. Brookside, Kendall and Tracey will begin at 8:50am and end at 3:25pm. As part of the instructional time expansion, schools are adding a fourth special subject to their academic program. The remaining NPS elementary schools are scheduled to increase instructional time with the start of the 2019-20 school year.
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Student attendance, performance data, and recordkeeping is maintained on our comprehensive K-12 data management system, PowerSchool. Families of secondary students will be able to access this information about their children via a log-in to the parent portal during the first week of school. Those whose children are entering middle school for the first time will receive an email with access information needed to create an account, or add on another child to an existing account. In early fall, families with elementary school students will also be able to access the parent portal. Parents with both elementary and secondary students will be able to access multiple accounts through one log-in.
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Back To School Safety Reminders
Our emergency policies and procedures are reviewed regularly throughout the year, and safety drills are performed monthly at all schools. While we don’t communicate details about these, for obvious reasons, they have become part of the routine for students over the years. Students in Norwalk have been practicing Lockout, Lockdown, Evacuate and Shelter-in-Place at all grade levels.
Additional security personnel have been added throughout the district, including new security guards now in place at all elementary schools for the start of the school year.
During the 2017-18 school year, several security upgrades were included in the funding received from the City of Norwalk and Board of Education.
- Installation of digital cameras and new surveillance equipment throughout our schools. Cameras are placed in strategic areas, depending on the school. This new equipment is a significant upgrade to our monitoring capabilities.
- Secondary students and parents have access to the Anonymous Alerts app. We encourage students to contact a school administrator or teacher if they are worried about a fellow student, or use the Anonymous Alerts app if they prefer. We ask that our families please reinforce this message at home as well, especially with our secondary students.
- Raptor is a web-based software application that provides an effective and efficient manner in which to track visitors in and out of the schools, helping to increase protection for our staff and our students. The system allows schools to electronically check all visitors against registered sexual offender databases, produce visitor badges, and monitor visitor hours.
Finally, please be aware that the District School Safety Committee, which is made up of representatives from every building, meets monthly to discuss safety needs and initiatives.
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NPS Connects High School Freshmen With Technology To Enrich Learning
Norwalk Public Schools is pleased to launch the 1:1 Digital Learning Initiative for NPS incoming freshmen students beginning with the 2018-19 school year. The goal of the program is to enhance the lives of students by giving them the tools they need to participate in a learning environment that promotes collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.
As part of the capital budget, incoming high school freshmen at Brien McMahon and Norwalk High School will receive a Chromebook to use and take home for schoolwork purposes. The Chromebooks will allow students to optimize learning by encouraging research skills and providing them with a valuable resource to enable continued learning at home. This technology will also help incoming freshman to organize assignments, notes and resources.
Click here
for the full story.
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New Safety Management System Protects Students Online
Understanding that student safety is of the utmost importance, NPS has partnered with Gaggle, a safety management system that identifies suspicious items and allows control and transparency for teachers and administrators. The Gaggle Safety Management system protects your child when they are using school-provided technology and alerts school administrators when the child encounters harmful internet content. Access to certain student information remains the legal responsibility of the applicable school or district, which is required to comply with privacy laws and its applicable regulations. Gaggle will roll out to grades 6-12 at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.
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Gifted & Talented Program Teachers
The newly redesigned Gifted & Talented program will provide advanced, conceptually challenging, in-depth cross-curricula content which focuses on authentic research and problem solving skills. Staff will provide facilitation to support students to become independent and self-aware learners. Language, reading and writing are embedded across all disciplines. Differentiation allows for acceleration in all curriculum areas as may be appropriate for the individual student through curriculum compacting. The program is aligned with best practices of the National Association of Gifted Children and is guided by the Renzulli Model of Schoolwide Enrichment.
The Gifted & Talented teaching team is meeting together in Central Office today (pictured above), and will continue to do so twice each month to support the implementation of the redesigned program. For a list of G&T teachers for 2018-19,
click here for the NPS website.
The G&T Department will provide regular informational postings on the teaching and learning strategies, parent resources as well as monthly highlights of program implementation. For further information contact Lori Leibowitz, Coordinator at
LeibowitzL@norwalkps.org
or Yvette Goorevitch, Chief of Specialized Learning at
Goorevitchy@norwalkps.org
.
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Wednesday, August 29,
First Day of School, All Students Grades 1-12
Wednesday, August 29
, Kindergarten Staggered Entry
Thursday, August 30,
Kindergarten Staggered Entry
Monday, September 3,
Labor Day, All Schools Closed
Tuesday, September 4,
Policy Committee Meeting, 5:45-7pm, Room 333
Tuesday, September 4
, Board Workshop, 7-9pm, Common Council Chambers
Monday, September 10
, Rosh Hashanah, All Schools Closed
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Norwalk Public Schools
125 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06852
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This newsletter is compiled & published by the NPS Communications Department.
Have a question about our school district or an item to share?
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